Taxing pensions is like welching on a promise

I really want to take issue with an article in the Sunday April 18 Bay City Times. “Time to hit retiree exemptions” was a left-wing, pro-tax article, designed to lay the groundwork for bad tax policy already under consideration.

Taxing pensions is like welching on a promise. Once seniors are done working, they have lost the ability to improve their financial position. Inflation, stock market rip-offs, low interest rates on their savings, high property taxes, increasing medical bills and many other factors take a huge toll on their relatively fixed pensions.

These were the best workers, who held their jobs for a large part of their working career. Many times, they passed up short-term career possibilities which might have paid them more, for the security of a pension in their later years. It is wrong for the left-wing politicians who want to buy votes with promises they cannot afford, to steal the pension money from helpless seniors.

The quotes in this article were slanted to present a biased and untrue picture. One quote compared a $40,000 working family to an $80,000 pensioner. It would have been more realistic to find a $40,000 pensioner and an $80,000 working family. A young working family would have exemptions for “head of household” and for each dependent. They might even be entitled to tax credits such as the earned income tax credit or the new tax credit for working. If the pensioner were a widow, she would not have any of these and would pay a much higher percentage of her income for taxes already.

I am ashamed of these left-wing politicians who would tax the most vulnerable members of society. Help get rid of them, before you find it is you who got old.